QuestionHi again Mark,
I'm sorry for being ignorant, but could you please explain to me, in layman's language, about the basics of any music system like the HU, speakers, amplifiers and subs?
What is the function of an amplifier and what is the difference between a 2-channel and 4-channel amplifier? The amplifiers run the subs or speakers or both?
What do subs do? Are they the same as sub-woofers?
What are comps?
The set-up was advised to me by a friend. I'll be getting 2 pairs of speakers; so will that explain the 4 channel amplifier? 2 chanels to run the front 2 speakers and 2 channels to run the other 2 in the rear. If that's the case, then what runs the sub?
Clearly, I am very confused and would appreciate if you could provide me with your insight. I am very anxious to learn.
Thanks again Mark.
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Followup To
Question -
Hi Mark,
I am looking to have the following audio set-up in my car:
HU : Sony Xplod (either the CDX-GT 250S or CDX-GT 350S)
Speakers : JBL (either the GTO or CS series)
Amplifier : Sony 504
Sub : Pioneer 306C
What do you think about the set-up? I would appreciate if you could provide model specifics too. I have a budget of $500-$550.
Also, feel free to add your comments and suggestions.
Thanks.
P.S - Do you think Pioneer makes better HU's than Sony's?
Answer -
Trying to do a whole system for 550 is quite a challenge, dont forget you can easily spend $50 on wireing (I've done installs where I spent $300 on wiring using cheap wire!!) and you will need to build a box. Even if you build the box yourself you will need to spend around $40-50 Just in wood, glue, screws, carpet, etc. I think it's pretty good for the money except for 1 thing. I believe you are planning on runing those door speakers off of the head unit and using that amp to run the sub. Correct me if I'm wrong there. But you shouldnt use a 4 channel amp to run subs. I dont know if you were planning on using 2 channels for the front speakers and the other 2 to brige for the sub? If so that's not so bad but I still think you'd be better getting a mono amp for the sub and runining the door speakers off the H/U. ARe you plannign on 1 sub or 2?
This would be my recomendation considering you are looking for bang for the buck:
The cd player's fine
The door speakers are fine
The sub is fine
Biggest bang for the buck is the boss GT series. Boss is considered pretty cheap (almost junky) but I've used the GT2500 before to drive 2 10s and it was pretty impressive for the price. the 1500d is selling on ebay for $140
If you want better name brand stuff there's great sales on Fosgate amps at sounddomain.com this one:
http://www.cardomain.com/item/ROCP3002
should run one of those subs well. You have to make sure you match the ohms right so let me know how many subs you are getting and weather they're dual voice coil or single and I can help you more.
Good luck!
AnswerDont feel sorry for being ignorant. I'm here to help people learn from what I've learned. one thing I've learned is that there's always more to learn. that being said You've got ALOT to learn and thats great but at the same time you are investing money and it may not be the best place for trial and error. Id be happy to answer all of your questions and I will but please consider having a friend who's done a few installs to help you so that you are still learning but wont have to learn through as much error as trial.
Where to begin? hmmm..
How about I paste your orriginal email into this one and answer the questions line by line.
Q1: What is the function of an amplifier
an amplifier's job is to make the signal louder. every speaker needs energy to make it move to produce sound. without enough energy it wont be loud enough or even make any sound so an amplifier is needed to boost the signal going to the speaker. usually an amplifier is connected between a "source" and a speaker. The "source" (in your case a cd player) sends out something called "line level" line level is a very quiet signal, not strong enough for a speaker, you'd be able to hear it with headphones at best but that's about it. the line level feeds into an amplifier to get boosted up to speaker level where it can drive a speaker with enough energy to be heard. Almost all Cd players have a small amplifier built in so they can drive speakers by themselvs without the use of an external amplifier. There is enough power in this small amplifier to run small speakers like the ones found in your car doors. When it comes to larger more powerful speakers like 10" subwoofers or even 15" subwoofers this small amplifier wont cut it, so an external amp is needed. You can still drive the door speakers off the internal one AND use an external amp to run the subwoofer.
Q2:what is the difference between a 2-channel and 4-channel amplifier?
This explaination is complicated even though the priciple is simple. Most people will tell you that you that a 2 channel amp runs 2 speakers and a 4 channel amp runs 4 channels and this is basically true but there is more to it than that. Every speaker that is capable of making or needing a DIFFERENT sound apart from the other speakers needs a separate channel. a 2 channel amp supports 2 different things going on at once. A left sound coming in and being amplified and going to a left speaker is 1 and a right sound going to a right speaker is 2. there's your 2 channels. You can run 2 left speakers and 2 right speakers on a 2 channel amp (front and rear left and right), you dont NEED 4 channels since both left speakers will make the same sound and both right speakers will make the same sound. BUT Using a 4 channel amp on 4 speakers will give you the benefit of making the rear speakers louder or quieter than the fronts which may be nessesary to get it to sound right. So if the left and right needs to sound different for proper stereo and the front and rear need to sound different (compared to the front) for the loudness to be right between them, then you need 4 separate channels so a 4 channel amp is nessesary to make 4 different sounds at once. most amps have a Bridging mode where you combine 2 channels together to get 1 more powerfull channel. so a 4 channel amp could be used to run it's front 2 channels independently as a left and right door speaker and the 2 rear channels can be bridged together into 1 channel for a subwoofer. so this 4 channel amp would act as a 3 channel. I know this is alot but it's the more accurate answer than the simple one I gave a the begining of this paragraph.
Q3: The amplifiers run the subs or speakers or both?
I think we just answered that right?
Q4: What do subs do? Are they the same as sub-woofers?
Yes Subs is just an abreviation of subwoofers.
What subs do is reproduce the lowwer frequencies known as bass. The range of human hearing is 20-20000 hz. most small door speakers in a car cant play sounds below 90hz or so. so the deeper parts of the music from 90 down to 20 are lossed. A subwoofer is the only speaker that can recreate these sounds so that they arent missing from your music anymore.
Q5: What are comps?
another abreviation. its short for Component speakers. component speakers or Comps are a set of a woofer and a tweeter and a crossover. the woofer's job is to reproduce that 90hz we were talking about eariler up to about 3000hz and the tweeter's job is to pick up there at 3000 and go the rest of the way to 20,000. the crossover is a small box that these speakers hook up to and it's job is to divide the sound up so the right speaekrs get the right sounds. this makes for much clear more realistic sound.
The set-up was advised to me by a friend. I'll be getting 2 pairs of speakers; so will that explain the 4 channel amplifier? 2 chanels to run the front 2 speakers and 2 channels to run the other 2 in the rear. If that's the case, then what runs the sub?
If your "friend" sugested it for you this may be a good question for him on why he picked these parts out. Everyone has their specialty and alot of people claim they "know stuff" about one thing or another and they really dont know much at all. not to put your friend down but I see it all the time where people know the tip of the iceberg and try to help people bassed on that. If this sounds like your friend I wouldnt make any buying descions bassed on his recomendations. I worked at a computer helpdesk for a long time and I couldnt tell you how many computers came in SEVERELY screwed up and the girl would say "my boyfriend knows something about computers so I gave it to him to fix and this is what he did" and we all look at eachother like OH MY GOD!!!!!
If you havent bought anything yet PLEASE DONT!!! I will help you get the right stuff for you. you need to consider alot more than this to get something that fits you. If your friend is "upgrading" his system and is trying to push off his old stuff on you again STOP! we'll work something out. please send me a private message on this site with your email address and we'll design something together if you'd like, I dont mind this is why I'm here.
GOOD LUCK AND I CANT WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
